Diving: A Nuts-N-Dolts One-Shot
by EldritchGeneral
Summary: Disheartened that Penny can't swim at the local pool without causing a scene, she and Ruby go out to the sea.


Penny Polendina was an android.

A gynoid, to be specific!

And this meant, unfortunately, that she could not swim at the local pool, she sank right to the bottom and did not come back up. It did not occur to her to swim back up until her dear friend Ruby swam down and tried to pull her up frantically, so Penny hopped up slightly and nearly catapulted herself out of the water. Before they caused too much of a scene, the two left in a hurry.

Sad that they couldn't enjoy the pool, Ruby came up with a great idea; deep-sea diving! They could find out how far she could go down, and hook her remotely to the camera in Ruby's scroll, so she could see what Penny was seeing.

They rented a small boat and went out of the harbor and, after rowing some distance, Penny hopped into the water and sank down, it took a great deal of time, and it got very dark, but then Penny noticed that her eyes were adjusting, she didn't know she could see in such darkness. After a while she hit the seafloor, kicking up sand and disturbing some fish that scuttled along. A crab waved its arms aggressively before dashing out of sight.

"Are you seeing everything alright, Ruby?" Penny asked.

"Yep! Everything's coming in crystal clear!" she said, "Your voice sounds different though."

Penny began to walk, her steps were slow, heavy, and she could see fish here and there that would swim by as though they were going to approach her and then suddenly dash away.

After a while of walking she came to a steep drop she couldn't see the bottom of, she looked out into the ocean and saw a vast expanse of dark blue, heard little but the sounds of rocks shifting, far away engines on the surface.

Penny looked down, smiled to herself.

"Uh, Penny, you don't need to go down there if you don't want to."

"Okay!" Penny said, and began to slide down the sandy cliff. She looked up and noticed she was leaving an absolutely massive plume of sand, and so she kicked off, just slightly so she could still see the wall, and let her trail fall gracefully into the void with her.

She could hear Ruby breath heavily into the mic, but Penny felt the need to concentrate as she looked down, she fell for a long time, the ocean's hold, like the embrace of a friend she never knew, growing stronger all the while.

She hit the new floor with a small thud, hear the sand had a small filmy look to it, and it felt like mud to walk. She looked behind her and just above her and to her left was a cave and even she didn't want to go in. She turned back to look outward into the vast plain that stretched before her, just in front of her, perhaps 50 yards, laid two massive bones, curved. Ribs. She walked towards them, slowly, her hair felt odd on her head, and her clothes were fighting her.

"What is this, Ruby?" Penny asked.

"I think it's a whale skeleton."

"What's a whale?" Penny asked, stepping inbetween the ribs, trying to understand the thing, naive in the pure sense, the good sense, the sense that let her learn unrestrained and untouched by much other knowledge. She stepped between the ribs to learn of the whale, she looked out towards its odd bird-like skull and wondered what it looked like alive.

"It's like a cow, but… without legs, and it just swims around. Nothing can bother it, except grimm, and people."

"It sounds strong and gentle, like you."

"Hey!"

"What?"

"Oh, uh, calling people whales isn't considered nice."

Penny considered, "Is it because they're big?"

Ruby laughed, "Yeah."

In that darkness, her vision stretched but a few yards in every direction, and for a moment, all that was there to Penny Polendina was her, the whale bones, and Ruby Rose, and the sound of water upon water. She felt content, happy. She smiled.

"Ruby?"

"Yes, Penny? Is something wrong?"

"No."

"What is it?"

"I love you."

Ruby didn't say anything for a moment, "I love you too."

"I wonder if Mr. Ironwood could get a suit so you could come down here too."

"I'd like that, Penny."


End file.
